careering – Page 19

May 20, 2018

Cannes Film Festival 2018: Winners and Losers Inside the Perfect Storm

Cannes must serve many masters. Over 70 years, the festival has expanded to fulfill many sets of expectations: red-carpet black-tie glamour from the biggest movie stars, breaking news and celebrity interviews for the 4,000 global press, a vital film market for international buyers and sellers, and of course the films that will be assessed by the media and world’s most exacting critics.

But this year, festival director Thierry Fremaux found himself in a perfect storm. With a shrinking smart-film market that offers narrow margins of error, a Cannes acceptance can inspire equal measures of pride and terror. Fremaux probably should have changed the timing for critics’ screenings years ago, before so many festival regulars — from Canadian enfant terrible Xavier Dolan to lauded French auteurs Jacques Audiard and Olivier Assayas — opted out of attending in favor of the less-risky, Oscar-friendly fall festival circuit.

Spike Lee at Cannes

“Cannes can be brutal if you don’t get the right reception,” said Spike Lee, who soaked up applause for “BlacKkKlansman.” “That’s hard. It’s good to get the flip side.” Indeed: Lee came out of Cannes with the Grand Prix and strong buzz for an August opener. “I’ll say that as an African-American filmmaker, I was completely taken by the film,” said juror Ava DuVernay at the post-awards jury press conference, “as a person who has imbibed every Spike Lee film and seen everything he’s ever made.”

While the Palais’ flapping seats are long gone, boos and nasty tweets remain. In the end, the festival proved kinder and more accommodating to the media, who responded by happily accepting simultaneous evening viewings of the nightly gala premieres with roomier theaters — even if they had to file every night and missed more parties. “We love you,” Fremaux said to the media at the Cannes press dinner. “We are writing the future together.”

“Shoplifters”

Finally, Cate Blanchett’s jury had plenty of strong auteurs to assess, from Lee’s incendiary “BlacKkKlansman” (Focus Features) and Best Director Pawel Pawlikowski’s bittersweet period romance “Cold War” (Amazon Studios) to two poverty-row melodramas, Hirozaku Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters” — which won the Palme d’Or and a Magnolia deal — and Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum” (Sony Pictures Classics) which scored the Jury Prize. “Honestly, it was like the summer camp of my dreams,” gushed juror Kristen Stewart. “It felt like a consolidated 10-day film school.”

Clearly, Fremaux fought to bring two old Cannes favorites to the Croisette. Brit veteran Terry Gilliam prevailed over his legal woes (as well as a minor stroke) to screen “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” for buyers (after Amazon Studios dropped out) and press, who seemed receptive and grateful that the long-cursed movie finally had its day.

But why did Fremaux go to battle for “The House that Jack Built” as the film to return the once-banned Lars von Trier to the Cannes fold? The grizzled Danish provocateur seemed shaky and querulous on the red carpet and during (limited) interviews on his decidedly Out of Competition title, which alienated as many people as it pleased. He has every right to make his transgressive serial killer movie, but that material is well-trod ground. Matt Dillon’s rampaging attacker who mangles and mutilates a series of female victims struck a grotesque note at a festival that also tried to argue that it was becoming more welcoming to women.

“Under the Silver Lake”

A24

Riley Keough, who played one of the unfortunate women in “The House that Jack Built,” also turned up as a film noir femme fatale in another misogynistic movie, “Under the Silver Lake” (A24), that was tarnished under the Competition spotlight. No wonder she chose not to attend. Cannes Critics’ Week regular David Robert Mitchell’s meandering follow-up to breakout “It Follows” underwhelmed. Boasting multiple A-list indie producers, “Under the Silver Lake” is a classic case of a post-hit filmmaker running with the chance to finance his pet project. There’s plenty to like in the shapeless showbiz navel-gazer (that bears some resemblance to last year’s surreal “mother!”), as Tony-nominated Andrew Garfield, who’s starring on Broadway in “Angels in America,” carries the movie as best he can. But unless Mitchell goes back into the editing room, this movie will be DOA with audiences.

Much of what happened at Cannes stayed in Cannes, but one moment traveled. Organized by the French #TimesUp organization 5050 x 2020 and supported by the Cannes Festival, the memorable image of Cannes 2018 was 82 women standing on the Palais red carpet to protest women’s inequality in the movie business — on their way into the gala for Eva Husson’s well-mounted Kurdish women-at-war movie, “Girls of the Sun,” one of only three films directed by women in the Competition.

“Capernaum”

Fremaux has caught flak for undervaluing female filmmakers, from those shunted into sidebars Directors Fortnight and Un Certain Regard, to ones whose films never got shown at the festival at all. He’s getting blasted as an icon for a generation of white male privilege, even as the festival played along with the many women’s panels and protests about how to advance women in the industry going forward. The festival promises more transparency and parity ahead.

Of the three films directed by women in the Competition, Italian Alice Rohrwacher’s lyrical folk fable “Happy as Lazzaro” landed the best reviews (RT: 90 percent), sharing the screenwriting prize and scoring a Netflix buy. Husson’s much-criticized “Girls of the Sun” (RT: 31 percent), a straightforward but badly-structured war movie about women fighting back, left Cannes empty-handed.

Nadine Labaki’s heartwrenching poverty-row saga “Capernaum” (RT: 63 percent) took home the Jury Prize. Sony Pictures Classics stepped up May 10 to land the likely Lebanese Oscar submission for a reported $1.3 million based on the script. SPC didn’t attend the Paris screening, which didn’t have subtitles, but Gaumont did, and uncharacteristically outbid French buyers; the venerable distributor doesn’t often buy art films, so that drove up the price.

Were there other strong women contenders that could have been included? As Blanchett stated from the day-one jury conference, adding more women programmers is key. Debra Granik’s superb father-daughter Oregon survival drama “Leave No Trace” (Bleecker Street) played well in Director’s Fortnight, where many Sundance titles wind up.

Cannes 2018 brought a sense of gears shifting in more ways than one, as an older generation of leaders yields to new ways of doing things. At the “Solo” afterparty, Academy governor and Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy, who is spearheading several #TimesUp initiatives, stated flatly, “It’s the end of an era.”

Zinzi Evans and Ryan CooglerRyan Coogler photocall, 71st Cannes Film Festival, France - 10 May 2018

Zinzi Evans and Ryan Coogler at Cannes photo-call

James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock

Adding Ryan Coogler and Christopher Nolan to the mix with in-depth conversations, a beach screening for “Black Panther” and a Nolan intro to a 70 mm presentation of “2001: A Space Odyssey” (with scratchy analog sound) was a popular move. Both events were packed. Coogler was happy to thank the festival for embracing “Fruitvale,” which provided his first trip outside the United States, while Nolan has never been able to show his films at Cannes; Warner Bros. sees no need to gain festival cred to boost ticket sales. This was a clever way to get the receptive Brit to the Croisette.

Kevin Macdonald’s documentary “Whitney” (July 6) played like gangbusters at the midnight screening at the Palais, attended by the late singer’s brother Pat Houston. Although the films are very different, Roadside Attractions made the call to screen it at Cannes and follow the “Amy” playbook, recognizing that the film’s shocking reveal of Houston’s sexual abuse by Dee Dee Warwick would break at Cannes.

On the other hand, bringing in Gary Oldman after winning the Oscar for “Darkest Hour” felt like a desperate old-news move, but not nearly as much as carting in John Travolta to celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Grease” with a screening as well as new B-movie “Gotti,” which scored execrable reviews. At Cannes’ official dinner for press, Fremaux demurred, suggesting he had nothing to do with booking that “unofficial” movie.

Alden Ehrenreich at Cannes

Cannes also felt the need to showcase Disney/Lucasfilm’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story” in order to give the international press hordes and the celebrity-starved paparazzi something to do. (Ron Howard has accompanied three out-of-competition movies to Cannes: “Far and Away,” “The Da Vinci Code,” and “EDtv.”) The Carlton Beach afterparty boasted Donald Glover chatting up Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alden Ehrenreich — who reminded me he debuted at Cannes in Francis Coppola’s “Tetro” almost a decade ago — his movie love-interest Emilia Clarke, Lucasfilm’s Kennedy and her eminence grise, Lawrence Kasdan. (“I’ve relied on him for years,” she said.)

Disney motion picture chairman Alan Horn hung with Kennedy’s fellow Academy Governor Nancy Utley, who admitted there wasn’t much for Fox Searchlight to acquire in this year’s market. Before long she will likely be working for Horn. Cannes needed those magnificent exploding fireworks over the Mediterranean.

Fremaux isn’t responsible for the global film market, which is shrinking swiftly while streamers like Netflix grow, but is pushed up by China and Korea. France is in a bubble with protections that feed producers, exhibitors and television channels. The action in screening rooms for buyers and in meetings at the Grand Hotel was visibly diminished, along with fewer posters on display at the Carlton and along the Croisette.

“Cold War”

Last year’s outspoken juror, producer-actress Jessica Chastain, kicked up some attention with her “355,” bringing her starry cast — Fan Bingbing, Marion Cotillard, Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz and Lupita Nyong’o — to the Croisette for a photo call heard round the world. Her film sold to Universal for $20 million.

Focus had a strong festival, bringing Oscar-winner Oldman as well as launching “BlacKkKlansman” and Wim Wenders’ out-of-competition documentary “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word” before its May 18 opening in North America. Amazon Studios got a boost for Best Director Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” a sure Polish Oscar nominee.

Netflix reportedly went after Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows,” starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, which went to Focus; Mads Mikkelsen vehicle “Arctic,” which Bleecker scooped up; and Colombian drug-trade drama “Birds of Passage,” which went to The Orchard. Netflix pays well, but usually demands worldwide rights which are often unavailable. And producers sometimes fear leaving money on the table by taking only one check from Netflix and abandoning the buzz and branding of a theatrical release.

Netflix contented itself by paying $30 million for the animated feature “Next Gen,” starring Charlyne Yi and Jason Sudeikis. And as the awards were announced, Netflix sent out a press release that it acquired the award-winning “Happy as Lazzaro” and transgender drama “Girl.”

Even after refusing to bring its out-of-competition films to the festival, Netflix had a strong presence with the much-discussed absence of Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and two Orson Welles films. Even Serge Toubiana, the new president of Unifrance, admitted that while he loved seeing a Jean-Luc Godard film in Competition (“The Image Book” won a rare special prize), the movie would be best served with a Netflix, not a theatrical release. (Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval agrees.) Mubi picked it up. And word is that “The Image Book” will play in France on television via Arte, and not in theaters. What about France’s rules against playing films in Competition that don’t show in theaters?

Even now, the French are working to overhaul their archaic distribution system. Toubiana says that by next year, laws dictating a 36-month theatrical exclusive window will be changed as exhibitors, distributors, and producers negotiate new terms. “The majority of people want change,” Toubiana told me. “They want to make the windows shorter — four months, six months maybe? It’s a fight. Most films are staying in theaters three weeks, maybe four.” Still, that won’t change Cannes’ stance against Netflix, which still sits at the end of a long set of French windows.

Ultimately, where critics and festival programmers were well fed, the media needing to deliver robust features complained about not having enough meaty stories. Cannes cannot live on the Competition alone, and many were left wondering if we’re heading for a smaller, less-glossy Cannes. Critics love this bastion of art film, but someone has to pay them to come here. It’s a vicious circle.

“Cinema has lost a part of itself,” said Toubiana. “We have to acclimate to this new period of cinema.”

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Source: IndieWire film

May 19, 2018

Cate Blanchett Calls Spike Lee’s Cannes-Winning ‘BlacKkKlansman’ a Film ‘That Is Quintessentially About an American Crisis’

After awarding “BlacKkKlansman” the Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Grand Prix just now, the festival’s jury led by Cate Blanchett revealed why Spike Lee’s film about an “American crisis” spoke to such a diverse group in so meaningful a way.

“Obviously, this is an international film festival,” said Blanchett at a press conference following the ceremony. “We talked a lot about when a film transcends the limitations of its culture. Spike has made a film that is quintessentially about an American crisis and yet all of us felt connected to it. That, we felt, really elevated its importance even more.”

Fellow jury member Ava DuVernay offered her thoughts as well. “As an African American filmmaker, I was completely taken by the film,” she said. “I’ve imbibed every film he’s ever made. It was startling and stunning. But when I walked into the jury room, I decided to listen to my jury members. It was a robust dialogue…emotion and energy from these artists from all over the world.” DuVernay noted the different gender and sexual identities of the group, but added that “we were united by the love of cinema … There were questions specifically about the African-American experience and this moment we’re in, in America.”

For fellow juror Léa Seydoux, “it was fundamental to us that we award that film. The world is changing and we believe that the film stunningly portrays these changes, and we felt it was absolutely necessary to give it a prize. It’s a great film that conveys a message.”

Blanchett also addressed Jean-Luc Godard, whose “The Image Book” won an unprecedented Special Palme d’Or. “We saw the film and we could not stop talking about it,” she said. “We had a very short amount of time. We tried to meet once a day. It lingered with us, confused, provoked, angered and excited us.

“It actually began to influence our perspective on the festival. We felt that as an artist who is continuing to experiment and be alive to the art of cinema we felt that this film was profoundly important. It’s not an honorary Palme d’Or. Of course it’s in the context of his body of work as an artist.”

Source: IndieWire film

May 19, 2018

Netflix Acquires Cannes Winners ‘Happy as Lazzaro’ and ‘Girl’ After Falling Out With Festival

After pulling its films from the festival and giving the impression that it might leave the Croisette with little to show for it, Netflix has gone ahead and acquired two Cannes prizewinners: “Happy as Lazzaro” and “Girl.” Alice Rohrwacher’s follow-up to her Grand Jury Prize–winning “The Wonders” shared the Best Screenplay award with Jafar Panahi’s “3 Faces,” and Lukas Dhont’s film won both the Camera d’Or for best first film and Best Actor laurels in the Un Certain Regard section for Victor Polster.

The streaming service now owns the rights to both films in North America and Latin America. It’s been in a sort of dispute with Cannes over the festival’s decision to disqualify films that don’t receive theatrical releases from its vaunted Competition; last year Netflix had two movies in Competition: Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” and Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja.” Notably, as a competition film at this year’s festival, “Happy as Lazzaro” would not have been able to play at Cannes if Netflix had acquired it prior to Cannes.

No release dates have been set for “Happy as Lazzaro” or “Girl.” Other big winners at the festival include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters,” which won the Palme d’Or; Spike Lee’s Grand Prix–winning “BlacKkKlansman”; and Pawel Pawlikowski, who won Best Director for “Cold War.”

Source: IndieWire film

May 18, 2018

Top 10 SXSW 2018 Best-Selling Books to Read this Summer

SXSW is the premier destination for thousands of creatives from a vast and diverse range of industries to discover what’s next. From compelling conversations with industry heavyweights and forging new connections to buzz-worthy film screenings and fresh new sounds at showcases, SXSW fosters creative and professional growth.

The 2018 SXSW Conference highlighted some of the most inspirational thinkers and industry leaders across 24 tracks of SXSW-curated programming. Attendees heard from a multitude of creative problem solvers and visionary storytellers, and had the opportunity to meet their favorite authors and speakers during book signings at the SXSW Bookstore. With hundreds of titles from SXSW speakers past and present, the SXSW Bookstore offers a convenient opportunity for attendees to network and pick up copies of their favorite speakers’ books during the event.

Whether you attended SXSW and can’t get enough of our 2018 speakers or you’re simply looking for a good summer read, we curated a list of our best-selling books from SXSW 2018 for you to check out.

‘Pope Francis — A Man of His Word’ Review: Wim Wenders Reveals the Soul of a Leader in Intimate Doc — Cannes 2018

Prolific filmmaker Wim Wenders goes economical with his latest documentary about an essential cultural figure — the “Pina” and “Tokyo-Ga” helmer’s cinematic obsessions are always wide-ranging, and this one is no exception — for an intimate look at the life and philosophy of Pope Francis. Wenders is less concerned with the path that brought the Argentinian to his place as the living leader of the Catholic faith, instead opting to explore a very here-and-now approach to the intricacies of the pope’s own faith, and how he hopes to use it to positively impact the world around him. The film shows a refreshing interest in his current existence, rather than becoming a by-the-book retread of his pre-pope life.

In fact, “Pope Francis — A Man of His Word” offers up just a single slice of archival video that shows him preaching to a large, public crowd about the need for brotherhood in the world. It’s more than enough to drive home the point that Pope Francis has always been dedicated to such matters. He is, as promised, a man of his word.

It’s that word that forms the center of the film, and the pope often gets to speak it, thanks to a series of intimate interviews with the man himself. The gregarious spiritual leader is open and disarmingly honest, and Wenders shoots their chats with such up-close immediacy that you feel as if you’re sitting next to Pope Francis; as if his thoughts, often verging on off-the-cuff sermons, are meant just for you. But he’s also a man fully in charge of his message, and when he offers an admonishment to any churches that seek to attain wealth — “Jesus is not there,” he says of such institutions, and he’s not afraid to count some Catholic churches under that umbrella — he pauses to repeat the statement. There is no ambiguity to his message.

Pope Francis’ arguments run the gamut from the expected (he’s especially interested in the concept of true brotherhood) to the scandalous (he’s a strong proponent of the environment, believes that the power of science can go hand and hand with religion, and even talks about welcoming homosexuality into the church). Less a look inside his personal history than a stirring journey through the ideas that shape his approach to leadership and the world today, “Pope Francis — Man of His Word” emerges as a compelling chronicle of a global leader with huge reach (that happens to be rooted in faith).

Despite his singular subject, Wenders makes a number of strange choices when it comes to delivering segments of the film not dedicated to those intimate interviews. For one, there’s off-kilter narration by Wenders himself, and his pleasant German accent and stilted delivery mostly get in the way. The film opens with Wenders ruminating on the passage of time, while a time-lapse video unfolds across the screen, and it’s a strange decision that otherwise adds nothing to the film. In one scene, Pope Francis observes a river, and Wenders’ ask that the audience likewise observe the pope sounds like something pulled out of a truly weird nature documentary by Werner Herzog.

Wenders’ choice to pepper the film with stories about Pope Francis’ namesake, the venerated Saint Francis of Assisi, already feels off-kilter for such a present-focused feature, and get weirder still when they turn into flickering, black and white recreations of the saint’s journey to God. They’re done with all the refinement (and half the humor) of a Monty Python sketch, and each time they appear, they stop the film cold.

When Wenders returns to Pope Francis, “A Man of His Word” snaps back into place. His visits around the world, from prisons to hospitals, war-torn countries to refugee camps, the floor of the Senate to a typhoon-ravaged Philippines, are especially compelling, and provide a chance to see the pope’s word in action. The pure joy he inspires in people provides enough emotion to fill an entire film, and even audiences that are in no way religious will likely be quite moved by the raw power of devotion — both from his followers and the pope himself.

As it chugs towards its conclusion, the film suffers from a common case of too many endings, including a fitting one that features Pope Francis offering up a final sermon about his own philosophy with advice that’s characteristically timely and universal. Then it slogs through a handful of truncated scenes, a few more interviews, yet another time-lapse, more voiceover narration, and finally settles down at a seemingly random point. Still, one of Pope Francis’ closing messages rings out, undiluted by a muddled conclusion: “We have so much to do, and we must do it together.”

Grade: B-

“Pope Francis — A Man of His Word” premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features will release it in theaters on May 18.

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Source: IndieWire film

May 13, 2018

Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott to Star in ‘Possessor,’ Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Antiviral’ Follow-Up

Six years after making his debut with “Antiviral,” Brandon Cronenberg is ready for his sophomore feature. The writer/director (who, as you may have guessed, is indeed David Cronenberg’s son) will follow that body-horror thriller with “Possessor,” which has found its two leads in Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott.

Riseborough will play Tasya Vos, described as “an agent for a secretive organization who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of high-paying clients. But something goes wrong on a routine job, and she soon finds herself trapped in the mind of an unwitting suspect (Abbott) whose appetite for violence turns out to rival her own.” Which is to say, “Possessor” sounds just as gross and unsettling as its predecessor.

“Andrea and Chris are among the most exciting and versatile actors working today and are perfectly suited to bring Brandon’s characters to life,” said producer Niv Fichman in a statement provided to Deadline, which first broke the news. “We’re also thrilled to partner with Arclight and Leeding — they’re world class collaborators who are as passionate about Brandon’s unique vision as we are.”

The film is set to begin production early next year.

Source: IndieWire film

May 13, 2018

Jean-Luc Godard’s Consultant Explains His Michael Bay Reference and Filmmaking Process: ‘The Closest Model Is the Torah’

Jean-Luc Godard’s “The Image Book” is a sprawling mash-up of movies from across the history of the medium, set to the legendary filmmaker’s lyrical voiceover, and many audiences at the Cannes premiere were caught off guard by the overload of reference points. While not as much of a conversation-starter as his innovative 3D effort “Goodbye to Language,” the 87-year-old Swiss-French director has certainly crafted a provocative, boundary-bursting cinematic achievement as only he could. Cineastes will get chills from the mere glimpses of “Johnny Guitar,” which Godard first celebrated in references to the movie from the first decade of his work over 50 years ago.

But one clip struck some viewers as strange even by Godardian standards: a fleeting, lo-res shot from “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” Michael Bay’s 2016 war movie about the attack on the American compound. Like much of what we see in “The Image Book,” the shot lasts no more than a few seconds, and it shows an armed, bearded man firing a bazooka at an unseen target. Since much of Godard’s voiceover finds him ruminating about the current state of the Arab world (and its neglect), one could easily write off the fleeting visual as one of many random images in this dense collage, which uses existing images as shorthand for a range of ideas about modern civilization.

But Godard, who is reportedly frail even as he keeps busy from his home in Switzerland, materialized at Cannes with a hilarious FaceTime appearance at the festival’s press conference. So of course somebody asked him about the Michael Bay thing. However, when Vulture reporter Kyle Buchanan approached the microphone hovering just below an iPhone screen — where the wizened auteur appeared as a cropped digital image that wouldn’t look out of place in one of his late-period productions — he pled innocence. “I don’t remember that film,” he said. “I think if I inserted that footage there, it’s because it contains something I didn’t find anywhere else.” But when Buchanan pressed the filmmaker, noting that “13 Hours” appears in the credits for his new movie, Godard concluded, “I don’t think that these images come from that film.”

In his report of the encounter, Buchanan muses on whether the incident was “a credits snafu” or “maybe he was just having fun with me, and Godard is a closet Bay head.” The truth: “The Image Book” does sample Bay’s film, as I confirmed with Nicole Brenez, an experimental film professor at the New Sorbonne University who served as a consultant on the project since 2015, when Godard first started working on it.

“I guess Jean-Luc totally forgot the origin of the shot,” Brenez wrote me by email, two days after she walked the red carpet as one of the representatives for the film attending in his place. “He watched thousands of movies, read thousands of texts, and experimented with dozens of editing strategies. So, in the process, one can forgive him for having forgotten a source he wasn’t really interested in.”

Ohhhhh shit there’s video of me asking Godard about Michael Bay pic.twitter.com/ozNJaCwg2j

— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 13, 2018

Ultimately, Godard’s integration of commercial cinema in “The Image Book” doesn’t correlate with his personal feelings about any specific reference point, and asking him to explain any specific clip misses the broader point: “The Image Book” doesn’t deal explicitly with filmmakers or filmmaking eras like his free-ranging eight-part “Histoire(s) du cinéma” project; instead, it operates as a kind of holistic statement on a media-saturated age, when humanity has been overrun by capitalist fantasies. “13 Hours” provides just one example of the deleterious relationship between religion and war, just two of his many targets, and he didn’t have to know the movie or the director to find an entry point for his argument.

Ultimately, searching for specific answers in Godard’s work can lead to frustrating dead ends. Having abandoned traditional narrative approaches ages ago, his recent projects work as extensions of his freewheeling intellectual proclivities, and they usually contain a kind of poetic frenzy that defies precise explanation. “All the images, sounds, and the relationship between them are so numerous and intense that not only is nothing arbitrary,” Brenez wrote me, “but nothing is unequivocal. There is a rhizome of meanings in each new relationship. I’m not a specialist of religion, but the closest model for me seems to be the Torah … even if Jean-Luc probably never opened it.”

Source: IndieWire film

May 13, 2018

2018 Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Arrivals and More — Pics

Actors, directors, jury members, and more attend the world’s most prestigious film festival.

Source: IndieWire film

May 13, 2018

‘The Lighthouse,’ Robert Eggers’ Follow-Up to ‘The Witch,’ Will Be Black and White

Little is currently known about Robert Eggers’ follow-up to “The Witch,” but its editor just revealed a key detail: “The Lighthouse” is being shot in black and white. Louise Ford, who cut “Don’t Breathe” and “Thoroughbreds” in addition to Eggers’ folkloric debut, shared what she knows of the project in an interview with Mandy News.

“It’s set in 1890, and we’re shooting on 35mm black and white stock, virtually unheard of nowadays,” she says. “Most black and white movies are shot in colour, and then converted to black and white in post. The dailies look beautiful; it’s very exciting.” Ford’s most recent film, Paul Dano’s “Wildlife,” premiered at Sundance earlier this year and is currently at Cannes.

Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe star in “The Lighthouse,” described as “a fantasy horror story set in the world of old sea-faring myths.” A24 will release the film theatrically, as it did “The Witch.”

The distributor teased the project in a statement earlier this year: “We are beyond excited to be partnering again with Rob Eggers, a true visionary and one of the great filmmakers of his generation. This new script blew us away — it creates a totally unique and ambitious universe and manages to somehow feel scary, suspenseful, wondrous, and beautiful all at the same time.”

Source: IndieWire film

May 13, 2018

Become a Cross Dissolve Master With These Helpful Tips

You might be good at using Cross Dissolves, but have you mastered them?<p>The Cross Dissolve is one of the most essential transitions you’ll ever use in …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed

News & Updates

May 20, 2018

Cannes Film Festival 2018: Winners and Losers Inside the Perfect Storm

May 19, 2018

Cate Blanchett Calls Spike Lee’s Cannes-Winning ‘BlacKkKlansman’ a Film ‘That Is Quintessentially About an American Crisis’

May 19, 2018

Netflix Acquires Cannes Winners ‘Happy as Lazzaro’ and ‘Girl’ After Falling Out With Festival

May 18, 2018

Top 10 SXSW 2018 Best-Selling Books to Read this Summer

Top 10 Books to Read this Summer by SXSW 2018 Speakers

May 13, 2018

‘Pope Francis — A Man of His Word’ Review: Wim Wenders Reveals the Soul of a Leader in Intimate Doc — Cannes 2018

Grade: B-

May 13, 2018

Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott to Star in ‘Possessor,’ Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Antiviral’ Follow-Up

May 13, 2018

Jean-Luc Godard’s Consultant Explains His Michael Bay Reference and Filmmaking Process: ‘The Closest Model Is the Torah’

May 13, 2018

2018 Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Arrivals and More — Pics

May 13, 2018

‘The Lighthouse,’ Robert Eggers’ Follow-Up to ‘The Witch,’ Will Be Black and White

May 13, 2018

Become a Cross Dissolve Master With These Helpful Tips